Gone Like 'One Love'

"One Love" was one of the (literally) hundreds of tracks Bruce Springsteen, my hero, recorded for his masterpiece "Born in the U.S.A." that was not used. It did not even make onto Springsteen's four disc box set of unreleased "Tracks". And so it remains out there, somewhere, listing, drifting, unknown, like that girl on the Randolph & Wabash Train Platform in the red shoes (perhaps our paths will cross again some day).

Anyway, Judd Apatow's "Funny People" is set for release this Friday and, as I've mentioned before, a Springsteen cameo had been written into the script though it was never confirmed he had agreed to do it. I was pretty well certain he had not, considering no mention of it was made on the Springsteen web site I check more fanatically than my favorite Nebraska Football web site....but I kept hope alive. Until now. Apatow confirmed recently in the San Francisco Chronicle that it was not happening. This is what he said:

"We wrote a cameo for Bruce Springsteen, but it was clear that it was going to be very difficult to get to him, and to get an answer in the time frame that we would need it... He was just another person that Adam's character would be friends with. We had a funny idea that the scene would be Springsteen pontificating about life and death, and that he would go on and on about man's journey and spirituality. And then finally Adam would say, 'Dude, you've got to shut your mouth. This isn't an intro to one of your songs. You're talking way too much.' And then Springsteen would say, 'I'm sorry, man. I just got really nervous. I was babbling, man.'"

What I would give to hear "One Love." What I would have given to see that scene. At least I can find solace in this.